Boeing and US regulators have dispatched investigators to Japan after an
emergency landing of a 787 Dreamliner intensified scrutiny of an aircraft on
which the US company has bet billions.

Officials from Boeing, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) are expected to arrive in Tokyo on Friday morning to help investigate an incident the Japanese government called “highly serious”.

The 787, operated by Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA), made an emergency landing outside Tokyo yesterday after cockpit controls warned of battery error and indicated smoke. The incident is the sixth in the past 10 days to hit the Dreamliner, which Boeing has touted as the future of air travel, due to its radical new design, systems and materials.

As news of the latest incident reached Wall Street, shares in Boeing dropped more than 3pc to $74.35 (£46.51). ANA and Japan Airlines, the two carriers involved in all the incidents, have grounded their 24 Dreamliners. They are expected to make a decision today on whether to resume flights. Other carriers using the 787, including United Airlines and Poland’s LOT, both continued flights as scheduled.

“What started as a series of relatively minor, isolated incidents now threatens to overhang Boeing until it can return confidence,” said Robert Stallard, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

The FAA, which conducted more than 200,000 hours of tests on the 787 before it came into service in late 2011, last week launched a comprehensive review of the aircraft but insisted it is safe. Boeing is co-operating with the FAA’s investigation and said yesterday that it is working with ANA following the latest incident.